Significant advances in broadband solid-state power generation have placed a new emphasis on phased arrays to efficiently combine the power of individual devices into high-power transmissions by exploiting the magnification property of phased arrays, known as the “array factor”. Commensurate with this trend, the demands for high transmitted effective radiated power (ERP) have increased by as much as an order of magnitude. In addition, operating frequency range has been lowered into the HF/VHF region.
Along with the high effective radiated power, the multi-functional performance characteristics associated with phased arrays, such as multi-octave bandwidths, wide field-of-view, instantaneous multiple beams and polarization agility, must also be maintained.
Within the context of these requirements, emphasis must now be given to issues related to power handling within the array aperture, as well as the entire corporate feed structure. Power handling encompasses not only the capacity to sustain peak and average (CW) power demands, but also to be able to operate in adverse temperatures on the phased array.
The present application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,992,632 issued to Mohuchy on Jan. 31, 2006, entitled “Low Profile Polarization-Diverse Herringbone Phased Array”, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,853,351 entitled “Compact High-Power Reflective-Cavity Backed Spiral Antenna”, issued to Mohuchy on Feb. 8, 2005. The entire contents of both patents are incorporated herein by reference.